Will Nov. Voters Buy One-Way Voyage to Socialist Hell?

(Editor's Note: The following opinion column does not constitute an endorsement of any political party or candidate on the part of Newsmax.)

Lots of their home state California and Minnesota citizens and businesses have already voted with moving vans regarding Harris-Walz campaign promises to create an “opportunity economy.”

Both states are rapidly losing populations and corporations who are taking massive tax revenues with them to far friendlier economic and regulatory climes.

It’s no coincidence in this trend that Kamala’s California has the nation’s highest income tax. Whereas its top rate sat for a decade at 13.3% for those earning more than $1milion, many of them employers, that rate increased to an astronomical 14.4% beginning this year.

Bear in mind that the top 1% of Californians typically pay between 40%-50% of the state’s personal income tax necessary to prop up profligate spending.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, of approximately 750,000 people who bid farewell to the Golden State over the past three years, thousands more high-earning, well-educated workers have left than moved in.

There should be little wonder that relatively high-income retirees who can afford to move do so before having to pull onerously taxed life savings out of IRA accounts.

Now imagine an added exodus if a President Kamala Harris succeeds in achieving her campaign plan to tax unrealized capital gains which exist only on paper.

While initially applying only to high-net-worth individuals and corporations, be certain that such a precedent would inevitably establish cascading slippery slope consequences for increasingly less wealthy asset owners, investors and pensioners.

Such government overreach will force massive liquidations to cover temporary gains without means to get the money returned when that theoretical on-paper valuation goes back down months or years later.

Corporate caravans are leading the California exodus, packing up jobs as well as services and tax revenues.

Recent evacuees include Charles Schwab, pharmaceuticals supplier McKesson, real estate giant CBRE, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Oracle, Palantir, Tesla and SpaceX.

With no thanks to anti-fossil energy policies favored by former Senator, now Vice President Kamala, Chevron is moving its headquarters from San Ramon, California to Houston.

Chevron was chased out by hostile climate regulations after having been pressured by the California Air Resources Board to spend $10 billion for new “renewable energy” projects.

Meanwhile, California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom-Kamala Harris “social justice” model has yielded the nation’s highest poverty rate, the widest gap between middle and upper-middle income earners, tepid job growth and one of the highest unemployment rates.

This in addition to sky-high food, gasoline and housing costs.

The Public Policy Institute of California estimates that in 2023, 31.1% of their residents were poor or near poor – up from 28.7% in 2021.

Then there’s the sad state of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota’s Gov. Tim Walz.

Rivaling California, Minnesota has the fifth-highest top income-tax rate among the states, 9.85% at $193,000 of earnings for a single filer, and is also a rare state in levying a death tax, up to 16%, on top of the federal 40% rate.

Consequentially, many households representing roughly $5 billion in adjusted gross income left the state between 2019 and 2022, ranking Minnesota eighth in 2022 income loss.

Under Gov. Walz, illegal migrants are eligible for taxpayer-funded healthcare through the MinnesotaCare public marketplace along with free college for illegal migrants along with all other families with annual incomes under $80,000 through the state’s North Star Promise Program.

Although Minnesota boasts a low unemployment rate (2.9%), nearly all of its job growth under Gov. Walz has been in industries that rely on government spending.

Manufacturing employment has declined by 7,500 over the past 12 months, heavily influenced by a 1% surcharge on investment income over $1 million and reduced standard deductions for businesses such as for net operating losses.

Whereas job losses started before the pandemic, they accelerated during Gov. Walz's prolonged lockdowns and have increased during the last year.

Although the Democratic National Convention was heavy on bromides about “empowering and educating a brighter future,” it was entirely lacking in educating anyone about what empowerments other than government handouts and regulations Kamala or Tim have in mind.

Both Harris and Walz are unable or unwilling to articulate economic policies and social agendas that most Americans would wish for.

Flip-flop presidential candidate Kamala appears to lack any sustaining core principles beyond personal ambition or an ability to clearly articulate almost anything.

Gov.  Walz who has candidly characterized socialism as “neighborly,”  has put this philosophy into practice at the expense of his state’s citizens and businesses.

Together, Kamala and Tim share ideological socialist histories. 

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty was accurate in describing Walz as "philosophically and politically" aligned with Harris, "a sort of Bernie Sanders in hunting gear," essentially "the same product, just in different wrappers."

After all, that's saying a lot since as U.S. senator from 2017 to 2021, Kamala had a more leftist voting record than even socialist Sanders did.

November voters will pay dearly for buying into the sort of American “Opportunity Economy” joyride this dangerous duo have in mind.

If successful, the Harris-Walz ticket would purchase a one-way voyage to socialist hell.